Is Affiliate Marketing Difficult? (Get The Truth)
The affiliate marketing industry is booming, and so are the success stories of ordinary people making big money in this industry. This has led to more people investigating affiliate marketing and wanting to get involved.
Usually the first question someone wants to know when looking into this type of business has to be..Is affiliate marketing difficult?
Basically, people want to know if it will work for them before they put too much time and energy into it. The grandeur of being able to make money online from the comfort of your own home is very enticing to say the least!
So let’s answer the question for you…
Is Affiliate Marketing Difficult To Start?
No, affiliate marketing is not difficult. In fact, it is considered to be one of the easiest businesses that anyone from any location can start doing from home. There’s a variety of important reasons for this, such as…
- There are no special licenses required to do affiliate marketing
- You literally can get started doing it in about 30 minutes
- It has very little startup cost, literally as little as $50 bucks and you are on your way
- You need not carry any product inventory what so ever, its all delivered by the companies you are an affiliate for, no matter if the products are digital or physical, you do not touch them
- Customer support is done by the companies you are partnered with
- Its extremely flexible, you work when and how you want
- You can do it from anywhere, all you need is a laptop or other digital device and an internet connection
- No income cap..It’s a performance based business model. This means there’s a huge potential to earn with affiliate marketing
- No limitations on what you sell, as you can pretty much sell anything. Almost every business online has an affiliate program you can join, or a refer a friend feature
- You can automate much of the marketing process online, with special software
- You can build subscription income (ongoing automatic recurring commissions with some products)
Does Everyone Make Money With It?
Here is The Honest Truth: No, most people fail at it and give up, affiliate marketing can still be very difficult for most people. As not everyone has an easy time making money from their affiliate marketing efforts.
Remember it’s a performance based business model, if you don’t make any sales, you don’t get paid!
So affiliate marketing becomes beneficial only for those who figure out the nuances of how to successfully sell stuff online. There is a learning curve, and if you fail to learn, you will not earn.
My first almost 3 years of trying to make money online, I failed miserably and spent more than I made. I kept trying to do it without learning online marketing.
I just posted my affiliate links all over the place, and that didn’t work.
It was not until I started understanding content marketing and building an email list, then I started making some real money, and here I am 20 years later making my living online for many years now.
I was too stupid to quit..lol
I knew I could do it, I just had to get over myself and learn it and then put into action what I learned..The key to my success was in never giving up..
Making money online is actually very simple, and once you get down a proven marketing strategy that works, you just keep doing it.
Let’s go through more about the difficulties of affiliate marketing and how you can avoid them.
How Difficult Can Affiliate Marketing Be?
Affiliate marketing is only as difficult as you make it. What does this mean exactly? You are in control, and it will be up to you to learn how to successfully sell stuff online.
You need to be able to follow simple instructions and to learn some aspects of online marketing. Many affiliate programs will give you the education needed to be successful, but it’s up to you learn, and put into action what you have learned.
No one will force you to do it, so you need to be self motivated.
It is not like a job, where you get paid by the hour, and just because you joined an affiliate program, does not mean you will make any money. You have to put forth consistent action to make sales and commissions.
Every affiliate marketers learning curve will be different, it all depends on how much you are willing to apply YOURSELF.
We know people who have made a million dollars in one year from affiliate marketing, and we know people who have made absolutely nothing.
If you will take some time to learn, only then will you earn. It will not come by chance, luck, timing or any lottery mentality. You will get out of it, what you put into it.
You need to sell things to make any money online and that’s a skill you learn.
How Difficult Is Affiliate Marketing vs. Other Kinds Of Businesses?
Debatably, the affiliate marketing business model is one of the easiest kind of business to start, next to network marketing.
Because often affiliate marketing is compared to network marketing by people who believe they are the same thing. However, affiliate marketing and network marketing are setup differently, while having similar elements to how they function.
In general, affiliate marketing is easier to do than most other types of businesses one can start, because of those 11 reasons we spelled out in the beginning of this article. Those 11 reasons are the same for network marketing.
Think about it, traditional businesses can have outrageous overhead, employees, insurance, advertising cost, licenses, a building or office space and the list goes on..
There are many affiliate marketers and especially network marketers who make more money than McDonald’s franchise owners with none of the headaches.
How To Make Affiliate Marketing Less Difficult
There are several key factors you need to focus on to make your affiliate marketing endeavors easier and more successful, because it can be difficult, but it can also be very rewarding and fun too!
If you want to make affiliate marketing less difficult and more profitable, here’s what you need to do…
- Learn – Take every opportunity you can to learn more about how to successfully sell stuff online. The key to affiliate marketing profits is in the marketing.
- Take action on what you have learned – You can spend hours and hours watching training videos, or reading marketing material without taking a single productive action, but if you do not put into action what you have learned, the new education you just got means nothing.
- Do not over complicate things – Learn one marketing strategy and master it, do not try to learn several at one time, this will lead to information overload, and stop you dead in your tracks.
- Get rid of ‘shiny object syndrome’ – Shiny object syndrome is the tendency for new affiliate marketers to jump around from opportunity to opportunity, looking for something easier than what they are already doing!
- Be consistent – Consistent daily action will lead to consistent results..Never stop doing!
- Don’t get hung up with obstacles ‘glitches’ – they happen, move past them quickly.
- The marketing – once you have this down and you are making consistent commissions, take it to the next level and scale your efforts.
- Automation – Use marketing software to help you automate some of your marketing activities, you do not want to be a slave to the internet.
- Set up a small budget for paid advertising – money is leverage use it to your advantage.
- Have fun – and reward yourself appropriately as you reach new goals. Affiliate marketing can be very exciting when you do it right!
Should You Do Affiliate Marketing?
Yes, we personally recommend that most people, entrepreneurs, and businesses – do affiliate marketing.
The variety of the products and services you can sell, combined with how easy it is to get started in the affiliate industry allows virtually anyone to become an affiliate marketer.
We hope this article on how hard affiliate marketing is, has been a great reading & learning experience for you.
You’re appreciated so much!
With our kindest regards,
Jon Weberg
Richard Weberg
